Australian Finance Podcast Are Australians really doing it tougher? Real spending data from AU, US & NZ
Mar 23, 2026
Jason from PocketSmith, creator of a money-management app and the Global Spending Map, joins to explain how real spending data is measured. He outlines mortgage and rent trends across Australia, New Zealand and the US. Short takes cover fixed versus variable loans, utility bill swings, and how households adjust budgets and forecast cashflow.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
PocketSmith Global Spending Map Is Transaction Data
- PocketSmith aggregates anonymized transaction data from 30,000+ households and ~0.5 billion transactions to build the Global Spending Map.
- The data is representative of PocketSmith users (skewed to Australia) and is grouped using natural-language categorization.
Australian Mortgage Payments Doubled Since COVID
- Australian households now spend about twice as much of their income on mortgages compared with five years ago.
- That surge reflects mass roll-off from ultra-low fixed rates in 2022–2023 and a high share of variable loans in Australia.
US Fixed Mortgages Cushion Payment Shocks
- US borrowers benefit from long 30-year fixed mortgages, so many still carry ~2% rates and face smaller immediate payment shocks.
- That structural difference lets US homeowners choose investing over paying down cheap fixed debt.
